And today the Supreme Court in a controversial 5 to 4 vote, ruled to uphold Pres. Obama's Healthcare plan.
So, I was quite amused at the mixed bag of commentary that I saw on my Facebook newsfeed. In chronological order, some highlights:
Since these are both "shared" public images, there is a lot of commentary attached to them--which I found very interesting to skim over.
I understand that any additional health benefits provided by the government will come with higher federal taxes. That makes sense to me. The first thing we learned in 12th grade Economics was, "There is no free lunch." And I *think* that if I could see those benefits in my life--like paid maternity leave and more affordable healthcare--I would feel okay with paying higher taxes. If I owned my own small business, I can see how I might feel differently.
Giving birth was my biggest encounter with the current healthcare system. I had no paid maternity leave. I was lucky though and my kiddo was born at the end of the year, so that I could use up my 2 weeks paid vacation for the subsequent year as soon as the new year began. But in retrospect, 3 weeks beginning the day he was born was not really enough and I think that pressure to return to work so soon really crippled my ability to breastfeed. And I think that's a shame. I would certainly have appreciated paid time off--at least the recommended 6 weeks to get breastfeeding established. But I know there are lots of companies in the US that provide generous maternity leave. Do I think the government should insist that ALL workplaces provide a minimum amount of maternity benefits? Well..I don't know.
My company also does not provide any health benefits, our health insurance is through Bill's company, but we pay extra to include myself and our baby on that insurance.
And let me tell you how unimpressed we were with our health insurance when the bills started coming in for our son's birth. It ended up costing us quite a bit more than we had expected from what we had researched on our providers website and via phone calls. Although the unmedicated birth went extremely well, and we were in the hospital for the minimum amount of time, we paid a blanket "hospital birth" cost. We thought that when our insurance classified our hospital as a "preferred provider" that meant a lower rate. What it really meant was that they had an "understanding". All births cost the same. How did that not come up when we were researching the costs? Seems like it should have been an easy enough answer seeing as how..its the same price for everyone. And my doctor bill ended up costing about double what we had estimated, and I'm still not really sure why that happened. We were very disappointed. Not to mention overwhelmed with bills!
That being said, I think I could really get behind universal healthcare as opposed to individual, privately-owned health insurance agencies. But universal healthcare is not what Obama's plan is all about. We will still have individual, privately-owned health insurance agencies. The idea is to make healthcare more accessible to those that really need it. Which I think needed to be done. Yes, I understand that healthcare rates are based on the amount of risk the insurance is taking based on an individual's known health conditions. I understand that individuals with riskier health will probably cost the insurance company more money. I totally understand why these companies wouldn't want to cover high-risk individuals; chances are, they will have to pay out more money. I get that. But...these are the people that NEED healthcare! Why is our system based on protecting the financial interests of insurance agencies above providing healthcare to those who are likely to need more healthcare than they can afford? That seems totally backwards to me. (And why is healthcare so outrageously expensive in the first place??)
Anyway, I fully support the whole "previous condition" aspect of this bill. As for the whole "affordable" aspect, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how that works out. So it's a regulated healthcare system, not like Canada's universal healthcare system (and crazy-long maternity leave system, too, apparently) for which I hear they pay quite hefty taxes.
Which leads me to the last post I saw on Facebook:
People Who Say They're Moving to Canada Because of Obamacare
We are nation of idiots.
I'd love to hear your view of things.
2 comments:
I don't really have a strong opinion on the matter, but I did see a gem of a meme on Facebook yesterday saying:
"Brace yourselves. Everyone you know on Facebook is about to become a constitutional scholar."
Hahaha, oh it still makes me laugh.
Don't even get me started. I can feel my blood pressure raising every time the issue of health care comes up, and heaven knows I can't afford to go to the dr for high blood pressure issues...
ONE of the MANY things I have beef with in this current health care system (that I don't really see changing) is the ABSOLUTE lack of information there is about how much a service is going to cost before the bill comes. You have to know EXACTLY the right questions to ask and you have to ask them EXACTLY the right way to EXACTLY the right person to even get some kind of idea about what its going to cost. And EVEN IF YOU DO ask all the right questions, they still don't give you correct information. In what other business setting would that even be legal? You agree to pay for services that you have NO IDEA how much they are going to cost and there is zero attempt made to help you understand what kind of bills you are getting yourself into. Oh man, I better calm down. I sure hope those people who are "moving to Canada because of Obamacare" get lost on their way. I heart Canada's health system. So much. Yes, it's not perfect. But it is SO MUCH BETTER than the states. Yep, there. I said it. On 4th of July week. And I'd say it again. Better. There's more, but I'm just going to calm down.
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